With the exception of one horrendous mistake, the Revs outplayed Toronto (4-10-8) in the first half. Unfortunately for New England, that miscue resulted in the lone goal.

Toronto’s Matias Laba stole the ball from Jose Goncalves at midfield and had his initial shot hit Scott Caldwell. But Laba slid home the rebound in the second minute.

“The goal just killed us,” Revs defender Chris Tierney said. “We’ve been talking about starts and how we need to improve them. It was the same thing tonight. We just didn’t start well. I don’t know what the issue is.

“It was such a poor goal for us to concede, especially since we knew that they were going to try to nip one on the counter, which is exactly what they did. It’s so disappointing to concede early; and we had plenty of chances to tie the game, especially in the first half, and we couldn’t convert.”

If there was one Rev who had several chances, it was midfielder Diego Fagundez – New England’s leading scorer.

In the first half alone, he twice had shots blocked by defenders with keeper Joe Bendik out of position.

Then, in the 41st minute, Dimitry Imbongo’s cross was deflected by Bendik to a wide-open Saer Sene, whose shot hit the left side of the net.

Overall, New England had 17 shots on goal to TFC’s six.

“It was a disappointing night,” coach Jay Heaps said. “I think the start we had put us in a hole, and unfortunately, you can’t give away a goal in the first two minutes of a game. But we should have been able to get back in it and we didn’t.

“I’m not going to sit here and not credit Toronto. They got the win and we didn’t.”

Heaps did try to put his team in position to win by substituting liberally in the second half – to the point he removed defender Steve McCarthy and went with a 3-5-2 alignment.

“We made a few changes positionally,” Heaps said. “We tried to get more guys in the box for opportunities, but unfortunately it wasn’t our night.”